What do the Tories make of Vince Cable’s crackdown on zero hours contracts? The Business Secretary’s review has been long-known, but yesterday he announced that he would ‘act against abusive practices in zero hours contracts, like exclusivity arrangements which prevent workers seeking alternatives’. Some read this as an overture to Labour, but from conversations that I’ve had recently with senior Conservatives, I’m not so sure.
The Tories haven’t given us many clues on what they do make of zero hours contracts, largely allowing the debate to be framed by Labour, and then leaving Cable to talk about them. But Conservative ministers are not unhappy with tackling exclusivity arrangements, whereby a worker cannot take on another job and must be contracted solely to that employer , even if they are given few or no hours each week.
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